Nintendo confirms Wii 'successor'

Out next year

Nintendo's next home console will be out in 2012, the videogames pioneer has revealed, though the 'Wii 2' - or whatever the machine will be called - is expected to be shown off at the E3 games industry show in June.

The Japanese company posted its latest financial data, for its 2011 fiscal year, which ended on 31 March, this morning - revenues and profit down 29 per cent and 66 per cent, respectively; 3.61m 3DS handhelds sold - and buried within was the oblique reference to the next Wii.

Well, with numbers like that, it has to give its investors some ray of hope.

Between the start of April 2010 and the end of March 2011, Nintendo sold 15.08m Wii machines - out of a grand total of 86m since Wii sales began in 2006 - and 17.52m DSes. ®